Determined to reproduce the perfect loaf of bread he tasted in a restaurant long ago, the only slightly obsessive author of The $64 Tomato embarks on a plan to bake a new peasant loaf from scratch every week for a year. And because William Alexander is nothing if not thorough, he really means from scratch: growing, harvesting, winnowing, threshing, and milling his own wheat. Alexander's often hilarious quest takes him through dangerous back alleys of Morocco, where he bakes his loaf in an ancient communal oven; to Paris, where he enrolls in the cours de boulangerie at the famed École Ritz Escoffier; and to a monastery in Normandy, where he becomes bread baker to the monks. 52 Loaves explores the nature of obsession, the meditative quality of ritual, the futility of trying to re-create something perfect, our deep connection to the earth, and the seemingly universal human attraction to the aroma of baking bread.

"Alexander's breathless, witty memoir is a joy to read. It's equal parts fact and fun.... Alexander is wildly entertaining on the page, dropping clever one-liners in the form of footnotes and parenthetical afterthoughts throughout."—Boston Globe